Most people haven't heard of QNX Software, though they've likely come in contact with it. The real-time operating system is used where software failure can lead to catastrophic consequences, even death - from high-speed trains to air traffic control towers to highway toll systems. It's also used in more than 100 different types of cars on the road.

I'm no longer a fan of QNX the company, but I'd just like to point out that monitoring systems could run Windows or whatever you felt like putting on them... they're not mission-critical. The systems controlling the sensors and safety measures, now those are misison-critical.

It's best to isolate the embedded systems and send data off to workstations running whatever is convenient; display the data in a comfortable desktop environment, and control the important bits from a well-designed embedded system.